It was great to celebrate Imagine A Day Without Water a few weekends ago. The mobile water tank in partnership with LA County Fire and Glendale Fire departments will drastically augment firefighting capabilities. Our community and beyond out to Pasadena, Burbank and the northern portions of Los Angeles will benefit from firefighting aircraft to reduce time between air drops, which is critical for fires whose perimeters expand exponentially. We also unveiled a means of efficiently and quickly distributing drinking water at various sites in the event of emergency. And congratulations again to Nicolas Dermardirosian, a senior at CV High, whose piece, “The Last Orange Tree,” won the science fiction writing contest.

We’re also proud to announce the completion of our first storm water capture project. In partnership with the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy (parent organization of Friends of the Rosemont Preserve) and LA County Flood Control District, CVWD completed the construction of a 42-foot bioswale that will capture and redirect storm water flowing through the Rosemont Preserve (at the top of Rosemont Avenue past Two Strike Park) into the Goss Canyon debris basin. This nature-based solution will increase groundwater recharge by allowing more time for water to percolate into the soil before entering the County storm channel.

This marks the District closing the loop on one of the more significant points of feedback from a public opinion poll conducted last year. Per that opinion poll, the community called for capturing water that would otherwise flow to the ocean (which makes too much common sense). We are particularly proud to have expedited typical bureaucratic speed bumps and to have employed in-house resources for the construction of the project that could easily have taken years to navigate various agencies and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Appreciation goes out to the regional partnership coalition and to Jonathan Russo, construction crew lead, who led team members Ruben Hernandez, David Escalera, Cesar Velasquez and Rafael Alas Lopez in the field.

Storm water capture represents one element of a future water supply portfolio including groundwater, recycled water and trading and storing water across the region. These projects and pipeline and other infrastructure rehabilitations represent significant fixed costs. We are preparing a financial plan to support a safe and secure future, including a transition to collect more revenues on the fixed service charge (meter charge). Water and wastewater utilities are made available 24/7 and are thus a service. And predictable revenues support long-term planning resilient to forces beyond our control, such as climate and regulations. We planned for a year of no rate increases in the face of significant inflation (current year). And where we would typically begin the outreach process in April (of next year), we are beginning the process half a year earlier to provide ample opportunity for involvement. Please stay tuned for a detailed schedule of town halls so you can plan in advance to participate. We will also be approaching community organizations directly to make sure we’re doing everything possible to reach folks.

In closing, please join me in welcoming our new System Operations and Telemetry Manager Gabriel Gomez. He will be responsible for the production and treatment of water and the instrumentation that monitors it 24/7. Mr. Gomez brings extensive experience, having critically evaluated numerous distribution systems for efficiencies and operational resiliency, and I believe the District and our community are fortunate to have his talent and experience on board. We also welcomed two interns, Fredrick Rana and Davit Tumanyan. You may remember that we’ve set an ambitious goal of completing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) by next June so you can track water usage on your phone to save water or identify any leaks immediately. Mr. Rana and Mr. Tumanyan will assist with both the field and technical aspects of AMI integration with the system.

Thank you as always for taking the time to read and for continuing the dialogue.

James Lee, General Manager
CVWD